Reinventing Libraries Session 3

On June 8, Sharon and Dan Wiseman and I finished up our three workshop series “Reinventing Libraries” for the Indiana Cooperative Library Service Authority. It was most thought-provoking and engaging!

We started with an “around the room” asking folks what they had done since we started in April. Answers included:

Loaded IM on all public computers so library patrons can use their screenames

One person said “I now get 95% of my news from blogs”

One person started a blog

We also discussed the unintended consequences of technology, specifically all the planning that went into a library computer lab that now has frequent use, including a group of folks looking to meet their matches on match.com!

It was intriguing to see how folks took to some of the new stuff. The slides about gaming certainly got people thinking, which lead to a discussion that lasted almost 45 minutes. It was fascinating: back and forth discussion with some folks resistant to the idea of GAMES in the library and then a library director in the room put up her hand and simply said “We host Halo parties at my library…” Woohoo!

Then we identified the top technologies from the presentation folks were fired up about and wanted to discuss and broke into groups. Each group met for 30 minutes to discuss planning steps and implementation. A debrief followed with some “next step” discussion and a round up of the whole experience.

Overall, I’m glad I got to participate in such a wonderful experience. It was an excellent group of engaged librarians. I learned a lot.